We’ve all seen it. It’s on the license plates, the “Welcome” billboards, and the cheesy tourism commercials. It’s that famous sandstone formation that has become synonymous with this state: Delicate Arch. It’s basically the symbol of Utah.
Delicate Arch lies in the beautiful red desert in the south of the state, where over 2,000 arches have been discovered in the 119 square miles contained by Arches National Park — just five miles northwest of Moab.
In the park, in order for a rock to be considered an arch, it must be at least three feet. The largest, Landscape Arch, spans a distance of over 300 feet.
Park officials don’t know whether the area ever had any permanent inhabitants, as few dwellings have been found. But the surrounding desert was home to the ancestral Pueblo people until about 700 years ago. After they were gone, nomadic Shoshonean people (including the Utes) moved into the area and were here when the Europeans arrived.
The first European known to have passed through the area was a French-American fur-trapper named Denis Julien. He scratched his name into a rock on June 9, 1844.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established an outpost in 1855 but were forced to abandon it due to conflicts with local Ute tribes. It wasn’t until the 1880s that a group of farmers, ranchers, and prospectors took up permanent residence there.
It didn’t take long for its inhabitants to fall in love with the beautiful area. In 1911, an 18 year-old named Loren “Bish” Taylor editorialized about the beautiful rock formations in a Moab newspaper.
Word spread, and in 1923 a prospector named Alexander Ringhoffer wrote to the Rio Grande Western Railroad to gain support for turning the area into a national park. The railroad executives were intrigued, which led to the government sending research teams to scout the area.
President Herbert Hoover signed a presidential proclamation on April 12, 1929 designating over 4,000 acres north of Moab as Arches National Monument. In its early days, Arches was much different than it is now. There were no paved roads, no campgrounds, no established trails, and no visitor center. There were fewer visitors, and only 100 arches had been discovered.
Since then, the park has been enlarged four times and designated as a national park. It now covers over 76,000 acres.
They also receive more visitors. Sharon Brussell, Interpretive Operations Specialist at Arches, says the park is faced with many challenges, but high on the list is “increased visitation and adequate parking.” Brussell has been working at Arches and Canyonlands for 15 years and was there in 2010 when Arches reached one million visitors for the first time.
During peak times, from April to September, hike to Delicate Arch. The trail will be crowded, and when you get to the top, there will be a long line to wait in for a photo opportunity, but it’s worth it.
Perched on the edge of a cliff with a huge sandstone bowl in front of it, the Delicate Arch is insanely beautiful, especially if the La Sal Mountains in the background still have snow on them. There’s a reason you see the image everywhere — it’s probably the most photogenic rock formation in the world.
The hike up to Delicate Arch can easily be done in a few hours, and even if that’s the only thing you do at Arches, it will be worth the $10 entrance fee.
Do yourself a favor, though, and go for a long weekend or, even better, a whole week. There’s plenty to do besides hiking and camping. There’s backpacking, canyoneering, rock climbing, or you could just explore. If you find a new arch, you get to name it.
With so much to do it’s no surprise visitation at the park has been increasing drastically. Kait Thomas, a park ranger who has worked at Arches for six years, estimates that 2014 will receive “1.1 to 1.2 million visitors.”
Park rangers — whose duties include orientations, guided walks, search and rescue, maintenance, law enforcement, upkeep of the website, just to name a few — have their work cut out for them.
Thomas says the strangest thing she’s ever seen at the park was “a Norteño [a type of Mexican folk music] band playing underneath the Delicate Arch without a permit.”
So get down to Arches before the crowds get any bigger. Even if it’s only for a day, even if you’ve been there before. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a parking place. If you’re really lucky, you’ll see a Norteño band.
But even if you’re not lucky, you’ll still see some of the most beautiful landscapes this planet has to offer.
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